The Sixth Commandment

Thou shalt not kill.


This is the 6th of the 10 commandments. It is short and straight forward. It would seem that there should be no confusion as to the meaning of this commandment. None the less, there is often great confusion and debate about what is meant by this simple command.

If you take the words as they are in English, you would not kill anything. If that were the case, how would one eat? You have to kill something living to eat and live. Maybe apples or Bananas and the like could be eaten. This is not what is meant though as God himself said to Adam and Eve that they could eat the flesh of the beasts of the field, so obviously kill is not the specific word that we need here. Kill may just be too general of a word.

Consider the statement, "Thou shalt not kill". This is a quote of Exodus 20:13 from the King James Version of the Bible. So, what does it mean when it says, "Thou shalt not kill"? The Hebrew word being translated here as "kill" is ratsach, which means to kill a human being, specifically to murder. In fact, most other English translations more accurately translate the word into English as "murder", rather than "kill".

What's the difference between "kill" and "murder"? Killing is taking the life of a person or animal. Murder is taking the life of a person, deliberately and unlawfully. There is a very specific difference between these two words. ... A human being can either be killed or murdered, depending on the circumstances and whether the act was lawful.

Is such a subtle distinction really necessary? Absolutely, if you want to gain a clear understanding of what is actually being said in Scripture. (from righteous warriors.com)


We must also take this in context with what Jesus taught about loving our enemies and doing good to them that use and persecute you. In as much as humanly possible we are to live peaceably with all men, Paul tells us. With those things in mind, killing, even if lawful for self defense, is an act of last resort. Killing in warfare would also be permitted, provided that the reasons for the war were righteous.

I was once faced with the option of killing someone. The girl I lived with had a stalker that had grown increasingly dangerous over time. The police at the time had no legal recourse to deal with it. Our lives were made a living hell. Finally when my life was threatened, I pulled out a gun and threatened back. I was prepared to follow through too, but I couldn’t pull the trigger. The threat worked and the stalker fled for good, but I had to mull that over in my mind. Would I have violated the command had I pulled the trigger?